


Like A Kid in a Bakery

by LexLemon



Series: I’ll Build a World Around You [10]
Category: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
Genre: Cliff always has to keep the Daltons in line, Daddy-daughter bonding, Fluff, Gen, Little kids acting like little kids, Little kids not entirely understanding the concept of secrets, Rick and Cliff aren’t publicly out, This fic is where my years working in a bakery come in handy, This is your resident ELO fan trying to slip in their music into her fics, Tracy always tries to change that, does this count as food porn?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26184457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LexLemon/pseuds/LexLemon
Summary: Cliff gives himself the task of buying the cake for Rick’s surprise birthday party. With his daughter coming along, it’s going to take a lot longer to complete it than he thought.
Relationships: Cliff Booth & Original Female Character(s), Cliff Booth/Rick Dalton (Mentioned)
Series: I’ll Build a World Around You [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1852639
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Like A Kid in a Bakery

**Author's Note:**

> I know Rick has a “canon” birthday, but I had already given him a birthday before I found that one, so this fic is based on my date. The date I made his birthday is November 17, 1930 because that man is absolutely a Scorpio.

_“It’s a livin’ thing._

_It’s a terrible thing to lose._

_It’s a given thing.”_

Cliff Booth turned off the ignition as he parked along a crowded Los Angeles street. "Okay," he said with a small grunt as he began to step out of the car.

His daughter, Tracy Dalton, poked her head out from behind the back seat and asked, "Are we there, Pop?"

"Yup. We're here, baby. Don't worry, I'm coming around for you."

Cliff walked to the other side of the yellow Cadillac and opened the passenger door, pushing up the seat so the five-year-old could get out. Tracy had begun to take up the strap of her blue backpack when her father waved his hand in front of her.

"No, no, Tracy. You don't have to take that in with you. You can just leave it in the car."

"Okay." Tracy let the backpack slide off and fall to the floor, tucked underneath the seat.

Cliff took Tracy's hand and helped her out of the car, saying, "And out you go."

Tracy let out a giggle once her feet touched the sidewalk, and she rocked on the balls of them. "Let's go!" she said.

"Alright, let's go."

Cliff held onto his daughter's hand and led her into a local bakery tucked away in the sparkling city. The two stepped inside and marveled at the warm colors that greeted them, as the walls were a soft brown and white that were perfect for the November atmosphere.

While Cliff whistled from the cool air that greeted him inside, Tracy's eyes were focused on the cases filled to the brim with every type of dessert under the sun. She let out a loud gasp then rushed back and forth between the bakery, her squeal echoing off the walls.

Cliff couldn't help but laugh at her excitement. He'd taken Tracy to a lot of new places in L.A. over the years, but seeing her joy at each one just reminded him of how great little kids could be.

"Pop, there's so many treats!" Tracy said once she was back by his side.

Cliff pressed his hand on her shoulder and pulled her closer to his side. "Yeah, I see that. But we're only looking for one, remember?"

"We need a cake," Tracy said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"That's right. We need a cake for Daddy's birthday."

"I can help with that."

Cliff and Tracy looked up to see a young, olive-skinned woman approaching them from behind the front counter, her black hair falling over her floral-patterned shoulder in a large braid. She gave them a warm smile as she leaned over the glass case.

"Hello. Welcome."

Tracy stepped closer to the case and pressed her hands on it, pushing herself up on tiptoe to get a better look at the baker. "Hi!" she said in a loud voice.

The baker laughed at her and said, "Hello there. I see you're here with your daddy today."

Tracy shook her head and pointed at Cliff. "No. That's my pop. My daddy's different."

Quickly recovering before she could blow his cover, Cliff stepped over to the counter and added, "Her dad's working right now, so I just picked her up from school. He's a friend of mine."

"Ah, I see," the baker said with a nod.

Cliff let out a quiet sigh of relief. The amount of times Tracy almost revealed their secret in public was getting to be too much. They'd tried to talk to her about it plenty of times, but it never seemed to stick in her head long enough. Oh well. Kids would be kids, he supposed. Sure, he loved them, but they also knew just what buttons they had to push to keep him on his toes.

Cliff told the baker, "It's her dad's birthday today, so I thought I'd get him a cake for the occasion. We're throwing a big surprise party at the house later."

"That means he doesn't know about it, but it'll make him happy once he does," Tracy spoke up, never taking her eyes off the desserts inside the case.

"That's right, Tracy. That's what 'surprise' means."

"I 'membered!"

"Yeah, you did."

The baker let out a small chuckle then gestured her hand out to the right. "Well, we have a large selection of cakes you can choose from. They're freshly baked from today. Most of them are chocolate, but we do have some vanilla as well."

"Great, thank you."

Cliff looked over to find that Tracy already had her eyes on the cakes, her face pressed against the glass to look at them sitting on the top shelf. She soon tapped her finger on it and said, "I like this one, Pop."

"Which one? Let me see."

Cliff bent down to her level and followed her finger to where she was pointing. A round chocolate cake sat on the top shelf of the case, its dark chocolate layer oozing over the side of it. Four frosting flowers colored yellow and pink were placed on top, giving it the right touch for an outdoor party.

Cliff had to admit that the cake was nice and looked pretty damn delicious too. But it didn't exactly say, "Rick Dalton." Still, he had to appreciate Tracy's effort.

"Oh, that's a nice one, honey," he said. "But I don't know if it's right. Remember, this cake is for Daddy, so he has to like it too."

"Oh. Okay." Tracy sounded a tad defeated, but she was quick to pick herself up and look around as if nothing had happened.

Cliff's eyes looked over the cakes until he spotted a round vanilla cake covered in orange food coloring and leaves made of different colored frosting. It was a perfect autumn cake and a perfect cake for Rick too, considering it was his favorite color.

"I think I'm going to go with this one," Cliff told the baker as he pointed at the cake.

"Great choice."

Cliff watched the baker pull the cake out of the case but was brought out of the scene by Tracy's shrill voice.

"Pop, look at this cookie!"

He looked over to find Tracy standing before the cookie section of the bakery, where a row of large chocolate chip cookies were lined up before them.

"They're, they're as big as my whole _head_!" Tracy said.

Cliff chuckled as he bent down to look. "Hey, those are pretty big cookies!"

"Can we get cookies too? Can we?"

"I would, but someone else is bringing cookies over. We're just getting the cake right now."

Tracy gasped and felt her open-mouthed smile stretch across her cheeks. "There's going to be cookies?"

"'Course there will! We can't have dessert without 'em."

Tracy pressed her face up to the cookies, her muffled voice saying, "I want them to be these cookies!"

"We'll see, baby."

Cliff ruffled his fingers through Tracy's hair with a chuckle then turned back to the baker. She was about to place the cake in a brown paper cake box when Cliff held his hand out.

"Oh, hey, can you write, 'Happy Birthday Rick' on it?"

"Oh, sure! R-I-C-K?"

"Yup."

"Any color in particular?"

"Uh, red should be fine."

"Pop, what's this?"

Cliff went back to Tracy to find her pointing at a tray of cannolis, white cream oozing out of the shells they were squeezed into.

"Now those are called cannolis."

Tracy giggled and turned to face him with a grin. "That's funny. Ca-nool-ee."

Cliff laughed back as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Yeah, it is kind of funny. So the white stuff inside of them, that's cream. And you eat it with the shell too, but sometimes, it squeezes out and gets a little messy to eat. Daddy and I ate them all the time when we went to Italy before you were born because that's where they're from."

Tracy gasped again and started jumping up and down. "They're like Mommy! Mommy's from Italy!"

"That's right. Mommy is from Italy. Good job, Tracy."

Tracy turned back towards the counter and stood on her toes, trying to make contact with the baker. She told her, "My mommy lives in Italy."

"She does?" The baker looked up from her work for a moment to make eye contact with her young customer.

"Uh huh. She saw my daddy there. And then, she came home with my daddy wh-when they got married. And then, I was born. And then, she went back to her house in Italy so I could be with my daddy and my pop."

"Is that right?"

Cliff felt everything tense up within him the longer he heard Tracy ramble to the baker, his frozen fear making him unable to end it. If she said any more, word might get out about him and Rick, and that would _not_ be an ideal birthday present. Sure, he normally didn't mind how much Tracy liked to babble about whatever was on her mind, but right now, he really needed her to _stop_ _talking_.

Tracy continued, "Uh huh. My daddy said that Italy's _really_ far. My mommy came from there in the summer 'cause I never saw her before. She's really pretty."

"Hey, I think that cake looks really pretty too," Cliff said, finding the perfect way to interject himself into the conversation. "You want to see?"

"Yeah!"

Cliff lifted Tracy up so she could see the bright red inscription etched across the cake in perfect curlicue handwriting.

"Wow!" Tracy said.

Cliff set her back down and added, "It looks perfect. Thank you."

"You're welcome," the baker said as she placed the cake into its box and sealed it. "That'll be $9.99."

"Oh, sure."

While Cliff rifled through his wallet for cash, Tracy looked over at the baker, her head just about poking over the counter.

"Can you write, 'Tracy?'"

"On the cake?"

"No, no!" Cliff quickly said as he handed his money over. "Sh-She just wants to see what her name looks like in frosting. Right, honey?"

"Yeah. You write pretty."

The baker made a small chuckle as she rang up their order. "Thank you. It's Tracy, right?"

"Uh huh. T-R-A-C-Y."

"Good job, honey." Cliff wrapped his arm around Tracy and pressed her to his side. "You learned that at school, right?"

"Uh huh."

"Nice work."

"Alright. What do you think?" The baker held up a piece of parchment paper, where "Tracy" was written in the same frosting handwriting as before. There was a slight spiral at the end of the cross in the T, and the bottom of the Y looped underneath the letter.

Tracy gasped and pointed at her name. "That's me, Pop! That's me!"

"Yeah, that is you." Cliff took the cake box from the baker then turned back to Tracy. "Hey, what do we say when someone does something nice for us?"

"Thank you."

"You're very welcome. Enjoy your cake!" the baker said.

"Thank you. Come on, Tracy." Cliff pushed the front door of the bakery open and held it out for Tracy.

As she stood in the doorway, she waved at the baker and said, "Bye!"

Once they were back on the street, Cliff made his way over to his car and managed to unlock the passenger door while balancing the box in one hand.

"Alright, in you go, Tracy," he said as he pushed the seat forward. Once she was inside, he added, "Hey, Tracy. Can I give you a big job to do?"

"Uh huh."

"Can you hold the cake on your lap and make sure it doesn't get squished while we go home?"

"Yeah!"

"Thank you, baby." Cliff placed the box on Tracy's lap, gave her a quick kiss on her forehead, then made a firm point at her. "And don't try to taste any of it! Daddy has to get the first bite."

"Awwwww."

Cliff chuckled to himself as he shut the door and walked around to the driver's side. As he sat down, he closed his own door and turned the key in the ignition.

"Alright, Tracy. It's party time!"

"Yay!"

The radio began to play out through the car as they pulled out of their parking spot.

_“KHJ Los Angeles!”_

"3:45 on this beautiful afternoon here in Boss Angeles. You're listening to the Real Don Steele. Here's some Stevie Wonder to make your drive feel _smooth_."

The opening funk beats of "I Wish" played out as Cliff drove home through the shining streets of L.A. The preparations for the party were just about complete. All he had to do now was get Rick there.

He hoped that his boyfriend would appreciate the evening and all he had done to make it happen, especially when he had a bright kid like Tracy by his side to plan it.

**Author's Note:**

> Songs referenced:
> 
> “Livin’ Thing”-Electric Light Orchestra: https://youtu.be/H48j3KGBomU
> 
> “I Wish”-Stevie Wonder: https://youtu.be/c7IYSAUj78g


End file.
